Luton are up and running with victory over Stamford

Ian Nancollas

Luton started their new Midlands Two East South campaign with a hard fought 22-5 victory at Stamford on Saturday.

Although Luton were far from their best on a wet afternoon, they still had more than enough to beat their South Lincolnshire opponents.

The Newlands Road side fielded some new faces amongst a team of seasoned campaigners and went on to dominate the first half, only for a combination of difficult handling conditions and poor decisions to hamper their scoring.

They did take the lead with a simple penalty for Rik Hobbs, before moving further in front when Tyler Chant seized on a loose ball and kicked on, easily beating the cover defence to touch down.

Hobbs added the conversion and Luton were 10 points clear, until a lack of discipline saw several scoring opportunities squandered.

A rare Stamford attack then saw them win a line-out close to the Luton line, with a simple catch and drive making it 10-5 at the break.

The visitors rallied in the second period and although they could not run riot, managed to subdue the Stamford threat.

Using their forwards to good effect as the conditions dictated, Luton pressured the Stamford line from scrums and line outs.

However they found it hard to maintain pressure as fell foul of the referee’s whistle at key moments, although some good composure did bring tries for hard working forwards Tom Garner and Connor O’Neill and a touch-line conversion by Hobbs.

A last minute surge could have brought a fourth try bonus point but Alex Dalo-Lami lost the ball as he wrestled to ground it over the line.